"My Thoughts, Ideas And Other Mental Problems"

President Trump’s nominee to lead the Indian Health Service has withdrawn his name from consideration for the position, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Humans Services said Wednesday.

The withdrawal of the nominee, Robert Weaver, follows Wall Street Journal reports that said he had inaccurately represented his qualifications to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs after his nomination in October. Mr. Weaver joins a growing list of Trump nominees who have withdrawn from consideration after questions arose about their fitness for their assigned posts.

Senator Tom Udall, Democrat of New Mexico and the vice chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, said in a statement that the move seemed “appropriate given the serious questions recently raised about his suitability to lead a vitally important health agency.”

Mr. Udall has not yet received a formal notice of the withdrawal.

The Indian Health Service could not immediately be reached for comment. Neither could Mr. Weaver.

According to The Journal, Mr. Weaver, a member of the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma, claimed that he had previously held a supervisory position at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo. But former hospital officials said that they did not recognize his name, The Journal said, and that they believed Mr. Weaver’s role had involved entry-level duties, such as registering patients.

Photo

Senator Tom Udall, the vice chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, said that the move seemed “appropriate.”CreditTom Brenner/The New York Times

The Journal later reported that Mr. Weaver, who had asserted his financial management skills to the Senate committee, had failed to perform important financial duties in a recent position.

The Indian Health Service, a branch of the Department for Health and Human Services, provides care for 2.2 million American Indians and Alaska Natives in 36 states. The agency, tasked with providing health services to some of the nation’s most rural regions, has long been plagued by financial and leadership troubles. A 2016 inspection by the Department of Health and Human Services revealed that staffing shortages at some Indian Health Service hospitals “sometimes force the hospital to turn patients away” and affect the ability of the hospitals to “ensure a sanitary environment.”

In a statement Wednesday night, Mr. Udall urged the Trump administration to conduct a more comprehensive review of its next nominee to lead the agency.

“Now the Trump administration must honor its trust responsibilities to American Indians and Alaska Natives and nominate — and fully vet — a director with the strongest possible combination of leadership and fiduciary skills as well as experience running a large public health system,” Mr. Udall’s statement said.

“I urge the administration to work to prioritize upholding the government-to-government relationship by seeking tribal input as it begins the process of selecting a replacement nominee,” it continued. “Indian Country deserves better.”